The St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists has little time to finish an $8.3 million plan to buy and renovate a block of offices in the Lowry Building before students rush through the doors Sept. 26.

Investment bankers will bring $11.5 million in St. Paul-issued revenue bonds to market this month to back the $39.8 million renovation and expansion of the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts. But will bond buyers be spooked by the offering?

Long before drawings and plans were unveiled this week for an expanded Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in downtown St. Paul, local arts boosters considered – and ultimately rejected – other ideas to relieve the center’s scheduling pressures.